First Impressions
by Okami Nocturne
Summary: When Lyndis asks Eliwood for help before confronting her uncle, Eliwood meets the unusual tactician that has led Lyndis's Legion thus far. And she is certainly unlike anyone in Elibe.


Hello hello! Here's a lovely little ficlet exploring the tactician in Fire Emblem Blazing Sword, particularly her first impression of Eliwood. So this is set during the wait right before Chapter 8 in Lyn's campaign, where she asks Eliwood to request neutrality from the Lycian Legion.

Got it memorized? Cool. Story Time!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem.

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><p>First Impressions<p>

Lyndis gazed at him, eyes full of hope. Eliwood sighed. "Alright. I'll do what I can."

She beamed at him. "Thank you so much Eliwood!"

Eliwood stood, Lyn following his movement. "It may take a few days to receive word from Caelin's neighbors, though. Are you sure you can wait that long?"

Lyn took a deep breath. "Yes, I'm sure Grandfather can wait a few days more…"

The lord of Phaere smiled. "You are a good person Lyn. I'll go write those letters now."

Lyn watched him go silently, praying that their plea to Caelin's neighbors would be heeded. Otherwise, she would not live long enough to reach Castle Caelin.

She left the inn to breathe the fresh air. The breeze was different here than it was in Sacae, but it still made her feel better. A sudden yelp reached her ears. Puzzled, Lyn walked around to the small clearing next to the inn.

She stifled a laugh. There she saw her tactician and good friend, Jacquine attempting to dance around like Nils. The little boy laughed "Come on Jacquine! You can do it!"

Grinning foolishly, the girl stood and tried to copy the boy's steps, only to land roughly on her behind. She groaned comically "Argh! I suck at dancing!"

Ninian, who sat nearby, smiled softly. "I'm sure you just need more practice."

Jacquine flopped back into the grass. "Nope. I just really suck at dancing. I've never been any good at it."

Lyn grinned. "Really? How do you know?" The tactician never spoke of her past, mostly due to the slight amnesia the girl had after waking in Lyn's ger.

Jacquine's face contorted in confusion. "I…um…a dance, or ball…I stepped on his feet a lot."

"Whose feet?"

She closed her eyes, then snapped them open, smiling like a fool again. "I have absolutely no idea! Go figure!" She jumped up and stretched. "Well dancing won't do, and I have to find something to do for these next few days! Where's Sain? He said he might teach me how to wave a sword around like you guys."

Lyn cringed at the idea. Jacquine may be the cleverest person Lyn had ever known, but whenever the girl tried to do practical things, she seemed to rain devastation around her. "Umm, I don't know. He may be off in the town, buying supplies with Kent." That was unlikely. It was more like Kent was buying supplies and Sain was wooing every female on the way.

Jacquine voiced Lyn's thoughts. "Ha! More like getting slapped for his praises by every woman in town." Well, okay, close to Lyn's thoughts. "Oh well. I'll find Mathew instead. Maybe he can show me how to use my dagger!" She indicated the small dirk at her side, then proceeded to skip away. Lyn blinked, not sure whether to be surprised or not about Jacquine's ignorance with a weapon she carried everywhere.

"Who was that?"

Lyn turned to meet Eliwood's polite smile. "Oh that girl? That was our tactician, Jacquine."

Eliwood blanked. "Tactician? Forgive me, but she seems very…"

"Flippant? Silly? A tad insane? Yeah. Yeah she is. But she knows her stuff."

Shaking his head with a small smile, he sighed. "Well, I have the letters here. I'm going to go send them off."

Lyn stopped him before he left. "You're welcome to join our little group while we wait. We're camping outside the town to save money. I know camping probably isn't as nice as the inn, but…"

Suddenly a yell of "Mathew!" echoed over the town, along with a cry of fear. Two seconds later, a large crash followed.

Lyn blanched. "On second thought, you may not want to…"

Eliwood laughed with good nature. "I would love to join your group for our wait."

"Wonderful! We're camping out to the north, and dinner will probably be near dusk." She waved as he nodded and left to send the letters.

It turned out that Jacquine never managed to track down Mathew. So she followed the trail of embarrassed and/or disgruntled town ladies to find Sain and Kent.

"Sain~ Kent~ whatcha up to?"

Sain threw an arm over her shoulders. "Well my boon companion is taking his time picking out supplies, my Essence of Wisdom."

"You know we need the best we can afford if we are to succeed. I will not allow a faulty sword hinder our quest." Kent said, hardly looking up from a selection of swords.

Jacquine wiggled out of Sain's grasp and joined Kent's search as the green knight answered "Yes, but that doesn't mean you have to look into every single armory to check every single sword in town! We only need a two for you and Lady Lyndis, then a lance for me and the magnificent Florina. And if you dare look into every shop _again_ for lances, Kent, I'll…"

Jacquine interrupted his threat. "This one for you, Kent." She said pointing at a sword. Kent grabbed it, testing its balance. It was near perfect, but was a tad heavier than he was used to.

"Jacquine, this is a steel sword. I've only used iron weapons."

"You'll be fine. With your skill and constitution, it won't hinder your performance. And we'll need the extra damage output. It's worth the price."

Kent and Sain exchanged a look and shrugged. They were used to Jacquine's strange way of talking, even if it didn't always make sense.

"And this one for Lyn. Kent, check its balance."

He picked up another. "A lancereaver? Milady probably hasn't seen one of these before."

"Trust me." She said, waving her hand vaguely as she proceeded to the lances. "With that, the armorslayer Mathew found, and her Mani Katti, Lyn will be fine." She glanced over her shoulder at the red knight with a devious glint in her eye. "Unless you're still worried, Kent. I guess I'll have to keep you two together on the battlefield."

Sain laughed and his friend flushed. "Now that's starting to get a little cruel, even if I approve!"

Jacquine grinned and turned back to the lances. "Eh, I might do it anyway. You and Lyn make a good team, Kent. Pair Serra with you and you're unstoppable. Too bad I need her elsewhere…" She rubbed her nose and pointed to two lances. "These two. The steel lance for Sain and the iron one for Florina."

Sain check the two lances. Like the swords, they were excellent quality. "I will never understand how you can pick such superior weapons when you don't even know how to wield them."

Jacquine flipped her hair. "It's 'cause of my awesome tactician skillz." The knights rolled their eyes. "What, you don't believe me? Some friends you are." She stuck her tongue out at them. Sain responded in kind as Kent paid for the weapons.

Eliwood came upon their camp near dusk. The camp was bustling with activity. Lyn's knights sparred, a mage, monk, and noisy cleric sat to the side talking, and Lyn sat with a Sacaen man as they cooked the legion's meal. He approached this last group, and Lyn looked up brightly. "Eliwood!"

"Hello. This is your whole group? They look like good soldiers."

Lyn scanned the area. "Um, Dorcas and Will are off foraging. This is Rath, by the way. He used to work for Marquess Arphen.

Eliwood nodded and offered a polite handshake, which the man took silently. Eliwood sat, unsure what to say. He coughed, then said "Is that girl better, the one I rescued?"

Lyn nodded. "Ninian? Her ankle still isn't quite healed yet, but she's well. She's over there, with Nils and Jacquine." She said, jerking her head in their direction.

Eliwood looked over. True to Lyn's word, Ninian sat on a stump, watching Nils do a hand stand. Jacquine watched him for a second, then leaned over. With a push, the tactician turned upside down, her cape falling away to reveal her pale green dress, which she had tied with a rope around her pelvis to stay decent. But the cloth still fell some, revealing far too much skin between her thighs and her mid-calf boots. Eliwood turned away hurriedly to maintain decency.

Lyn laughed at him, seeing his expression. "Jacquine, come over here!" She called.

Half a second later, the tactician plopped next to Lyn, scruffy black hair looking messier by the minute. "What's up?"

"Did you meet Lord Eliwood? Eliwood, Jacquine."

The girl jumped up again and stared down at Eliwood. She walked around him, scrutinizing him. He became rather uncomfortable as she circled a third time. Finally, she stopped in front of him. She quickly reached forward and lifted his arm. His mouth opened to voice indignation, but she had already let go. She grabbed his chin and forced his face up, to the right, then to the left, then pulled her hand away with a click of the tongue. Eliwood just stared, speechless. Who on earth was she, to be so forward?

Finally, Jacquine shook her head. "Sword user, probably never been in a real fight, but decent skill. Small and faster, so high dodge, but," she splayed her hands forward, gesturing all of him with…hopelessness? "You're such a _pansy_!"

Eliwood jumped up, not caring his chest was mere inches from hers. "Excuse me?" He demanded with a frown, ignoring Lyn's stifled laugh.

Jacquine arched an eyebrow at him, clearly not fazed. "You may be a good person, but that's not much on a battlefield. I'm seriously wondering how you saved Ninian."

Eliwood's jaw dropped as Jacquine hummed, placing a finger to her chin. "Well," she added, "Those shamans _were_ pretty pathetic themselves…"

He was speechless. Who was this girl, and how dare she speak so… so… frankly!

Lyn was rolling on the ground laughing. Jacquine looked at Lyn. "I'll do what I can, but he's under level. Probably won't fight as much."

Eliwood was almost ready to snap in anger by the time Lyn finally spoke, taking a deep breath. "No, no, no, Jacquine! He's not fighting with us! I just thought you'd like to meet him!"

"Oh!" Jacquine turned back to Eliwood, still only inches from her, mouth gaping open in surprise. She smiled brightly and grabbed his hand, shaking it. "Nice to meet you! Thanks for saving Ninian, and for helping us with politics. It will never be Lyn's forte."

Lyn laughed a "Hey!" as Jacquine spun around. "I'll go check on Florina. Smells like the food will be almost ready." She said before prancing towards a tent.

Eliwood watched her go, still not sure what to say. Lyn chuckled and tended the stew. "She's always like that when we gain someone in our little group her. She made Florina cry at first, Erk wanted to leave, and Rath here didn't like her tone either." Lyn said. Rath snorted, not pausing as he polished his bow. She continued "But Florina became really, really good, Erk became really powerful, and Rath here hits every target. She's just really, really blunt, but she knows how to train a fighter on the fly."

Eliwood scoffed slightly, letting his irritation go. He was a lord, not a fighter. It didn't matter whether or not he could wield a sword. The only use he would ever have for swordplay would be sparing with Hector.

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><p>Two weeks later, Eliwood wandered in Castle Phaere. Lyn's campaign was a success, thankfully. Lycia was perfectly peaceful again.<p>

However Eliwood couldn't help feeling a little bored. He missed feeling useful and helpful, as he did during Lyn's struggle. Plus, he had not seen Hector in a while. Eliwood was feeling antsy and unsure of what to do.

He wandered into the training yard. He saw a trained guard hack at a dummy, repeating the same move over and over to perfect it.

_"Sword user, probably never been in a real fight, but decent skill. Small and faster, so high dodge, but you're such a pansy!"_

Eliwood scoffed. Why did he care what that tactician said? Lycia was peaceful, and there were no signs of future quarrel. It didn't matter what she said, whatever her name was.

_"You may be a good person, but that's not much on a battlefield. I'm seriously wondering how you saved Ninian."_

But what if something did happen? What if…what if he wasn't strong enough to save those who needed him? He hadn't forseen rescuing Ninian. What if he hadn't been good enough for that simple task?

Eliwood shook his head. He was being silly. That's what guards were for. He turned on his heel and walked away.

Moments later he returned and grabbed a sword to train with.

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><p>Hope you like it! If so, or if not, please review!<p>

Thanks for reading!


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